Braga complete signing of Wallace on season long loan

Braga have completed the signing of Lazio centreback Wallace on a season-long loan.

Wallace, who represented Braga between 2014 and 2016 but never played for the club after spending the full two years out on loan at Monaco, returns to the club after falling out of favour at Lazio.

The 24-year old Brazilian defender played in 16 Serie A matches for Lazio last campaign, helping his side earn a place in this season’s Europa League group stage.

He was no longer in Lazio’s plans though and was allowed to leave, leading to varying reports as to where his future would lie.

That was mainly due to the fact that superagent Jorge Mendes has been in full control of Wallace’s career; his Gestifute agency bought Wallace for close to 10 million euros back in 2014, though registered him as a Braga player to comply with footballing regulations.

As a result, Wallace was immediately sent out on loan to Monaco, who he played for 56 times across two seasons.

After that decent loan spell in France, Wallace then moved to Lazio for a fee of 8 million euros, with Braga believed to have only obtained 10% of that fee, Gestifute pocketing the majority.

With his future at Lazio in tremendous doubt throughout this window, he had unsurprisingly been linked with a range of different clubs linked to Jorge Mendes before finally joining Braga, with Wolverhampton Wanderers one club who Mendes tried to offload Wallace to, while Monaco also came close to bringing in their former defender.

In the end, though, Braga are the side that have brought in one of Mendes’ most infamous clients, continuing the equally infamous Mendes merry-go-round.